It's the mindset. Hayden Fry said it was the first thing he had to change when he got here. I think Iowa has as good of chance of being successful as anyone else. Wisconsin? Really?? They have passed us on the hardwood and on the gridiron. Is it the cheese heads that they have? It's all about expectations from the people who do the hiring and who write the checks.
Could it be worse? Of course just look at Indiana in football or Illinois in anything. You would think with a major metropolitan like Chicago that Illinois would be right up there with Ohio State year in and year out. We at Iowa have a solid football program but not a great program.
The basketball program is much better now than it was under Lickliter and maybe better than when Alford was here. We are respectable but not great. I don't see why we can't be great in football and basketball. It's all about expectations from the powers that be and from the fans. Most people don't like change and fear the unknown. Plus above all other things the football program is a major cash cow and there is a no cow tipping ordinance in Iowa City.
There is no reason we can't be a Wisconsin in basketball or a Nebraska in football. All you have to do is hit lightning in a bottle with a coaching hire AND have him want to stick around for a long time. That's how Wisconsin became Wisconsin, Duke became Duke, and Kansas became Kansas.
What you can't do is keep getting rid of successful coaches because they aren't successful enough. You have to fund the right time to make the change, and when you do make it, get kinda lucky.
Fran is doing way too good to just move on right away. If we keep burning thru coaches looking for the next Bo Ryan, there is a good chance we will destroy the program. What we can do is keep Fran for 5 or 6 more years, then come to a "mutual" decision to move on. Kinda like we did with Davis. That way our program is on really solid ground and it loops like a place really good up and coming coaches would want to come.
If we were to just move on now, just for the sake of moving on for "the next level", it wouldn't be a good image.
